Friday, January 30, 2015

Ride to Hiwassee Overlook

The day was Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015.  The time to start was 9:00 a.m.  The temperature was 28* and frosty.  The meet-up was MickyDs in Downtown Seymour, TN.  The act was crazy and involved two (2) crazy old men dressed to appear to be some resemblance of the Michelein Tire Man.  Or the Popping Dough Boy.  Anyway, after a sausage/egg burrito and a cup of coffee we pulled out for a southerly ride today as there was a threat of rain coming our way.  Just prior to leaving, friend Paul checked his intelligent phone looking at the weather and yes, we might get a dab wet, damp even.  But what the heck, it was going to be above freezing in an hour or so thus no need to worry about ice conditions.

But before I get started with this adventure tale, I would like to bring you up to speed on my biker friend Paul.  He's not from TN and has lived here only about 7 years.  He's traveled extensively with the work he did, electronic guidance systems, as well as living on the road with his lovely wife in a motorhome.  Paul is about 4 years older than I and is in good shape.  He works out at a local gym three days a week for several hours, rides his bikes and hikes up trails every so often.  He's a tough old bird.  In fact, my grandma would have him in a pressure cooker for days, not hours, days just to get him tender enough to cut with an axe.  He's a good rider and will tackle any maintenance object with an objective of fixing it.

I started taking pictures just before we hit the Foothills Parkway since the ride to Fontana, NC took us pretty much over the same route.  At the end of the Foothills Parkway is Calderwood Lake.  From there we ran U.S.29 to the right instead of to the left which would have taken us over The Dragon.
About 54 miles from Seymour is the town of Tellico Plains, TN.  It's a small town in a valley with the famous Cherohala Skyway starting there.  It's a good place to top off the gas tank, grab a bite to eat and today, take in a cup of hot coffee to warm the "innards".  This is the town that has a small sawmill just up the road from this building shown above.



I didn't inset a map of our route today as it would resemble a small child with a pencil being asked to draw their favorite picture.  In other words, similar to a chicken scratching on the ground.  Lots of loops, circles, deadends and some open roads.  It was sort of a go to a destination but check out some of the roads that haven't been ridden before and possibly some new ones to ride next.

 And with the looming storm clouds, we were trying to do it knowing at any time we could get wet.  Yep, we got wet.  About an hour into the ride it started sprinkling rain and drizzled for about another two hours before it finally passed over us.  We were dressed in our raingear so the only thing we had to deal with was the wet roads.  Which in a way was good as you have the tendency to ride a bit faster when the surface is dry.

The above picture is a wood structure church stained a dark brown.  A bit unusual but the building serves the same purpose.

I put my camera away so as to not ruin it with the rain so the pics between start off and finish are missing a bunch.  As you can see from this picture, the weather cleared and the day became beautiful.




In the summer you would see almost nothing but if you peer hard left about midway the pic you can see the structure of a dam.  The highway was running alongside the river in this area.







On the upper side of the dam is the lake and you can see the bouy markers trying to keep you away from the water in-take structure.









The river is beautiful here.  This is downstream from the dam.  This water is cold in the summer and with the temperature this afternoon I'm sure it hasn't warmed up.  No skinny dipping today.  In fact, tomorrow either.






As we rode the sky kept getting darker and shortly afterward the rain came.  But until that point, ride Cowboy ride.
Country roads have some of the best scenery.  It often is like looking back in history, wondering how things were before all of the modern facilities came into the picture.  I had a taste of some of this in my youth along with my brother while staying at one of our Grandparents during the summer.  No electricity, no heat or cooking except with wood, no TV, etc.
You can tell many of the homes started out simple and as the family grew so did the size of the house.  In some areas there wasn't sufficient room to grow much as you would have a river on one side and the mountain just outside of the back door.
This is one of the better back roads we traveled on this ride.
We finally arrived at the Hiwassee River Overlook.  The river is wide and is not all that deep at this point.  You can see a lot of the rock bottom now that the water is shallow.

An elegant picture, Sweet Thang and the White Rat, at rest.
One of the views, looking down stream, of the Hiwassee River.  Just across the river is a railroad track and a train runs this route with tourists.
Looking upstream from the Overlook.
Now the ride back towards the house after a number of loops, side runs, etc.  The road is damp so the riding is slower.
A few near 180* turns.  The view would not be this open in the summer.  Thus, you have to stay tuned to accept the road as it weaves and turns its way up and down the mountains.
Great run, and it has guard rails such that if you hit them with a motorcycle your bike possibly stops and you, the rider, go flying through the air unlike Superman.  He has a cape, you, not much.
Often we will take a side road just to see where it leads.  Sometimes there are signs telling you what's down the road and sometimes you can actually find it.  We had one of those situations on this ride.  We were looking for a mill but it hid from us.
Either the road is very high or the house is very low.  Makes you wonder if they ever have any guests DROP in.
The Hiwassee has a rather large flood plain as this house indicates.  It is built in the same style as houses in South Louisiana where flooding occurs.  Some of these were even along the Mississippi where the living quarters is on the second floor and work areas are on the ground floor due to flooding, maybe every year or every so many years.  Mother Nature is rather unpredictable.
This old house was elegant in it's prime but today it is rather run down and unkempt.  I hate to see these old buildings go to the wayside but then, it costs a lot to maintain them.
Another great back road having a good surface and good views.
When you see those yellow signs with the wiggle on them, take heed, they're usually right.  They just don't tell you how tight the turns will be but at least you've been notified.  Ahead of time.
One of the routes we were going to take back as a short cut we found out from a local, that it turned to gravel just a short way down the road.  So we went the long way and when we got to where it would have come out we turned down it to see how far it was before it turned to gravel.  About a mile or so it did just that, turned from asphalt to gravel.  So, while Paul rode about a mile or so down it to check it out, I waited here.
After a brief stop at the same pace we stopped that morning in Tellico Plains, we headed back to Seymour via TN 360.  Love that road and it brought us out by Fort Loudon State Park.  After a few more back roads we pulled into the convenience store next door to where we started from.  Gassed up our bikes, swapped mileage and then departed for the house.



My door to door mileage today was a damp, chilly, sunny, enjoyable 206 miles.  Tomorrow, being Friday, I'll clean my bike to get it ready for the next ride.  Good times today, some new roads, some old roads and some almost no road at all.  But the time seeing creations and enjoying friendship was worth every bit of any inconvenience.  Wait, there really wasn't any real inconvenience.  Just a little disturbance.  So, until the next adventure, love your family, enjoy your friends, and take life for what it is.  Short in the span of time. 


Monday, January 26, 2015

Riding The Cold Coal Mountains of TN and KY

Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015.  Starting temp, just above freezing with a tops of near 50 degrees today.  Destination, local MickyDs for meet-up and then head for the TN-KY border and back roads, especially KY 74.  Biker friends Paul and Ken met up, drank our coffee, and at 9:45 a.m. we pulled out heading West to Knoxville and then North on I-75.  This is one of the few times we run the interstate which was to save time getting to our ride destination.  At Caryville, TN we left the interstate never to return again this day.  From now on it will be backroads with some four laners every once in a while.

This is the general route for today.  There are several short loop roads not indicated.
Meet-up, Sweet Thang, Ole Yeller, and the White Rat.  Ole Yeller is a Honda Goldwing which gets about 20K miles a year on it and some long trips.  This past Fall he rode up thru the New England states into Maine.  Next month he's heading to Keywest, FL to meet up with his lady friend for a few weeks.  He hauls a small pet cage in the passenger seat for his minature Yorkie that travels with him on overnight rides.
Going North out of Knoxville we rode I-75 which is a nice scenic highway.  This was taken in order to hasten the travel to lesser roads but roads with more interest.
First of the lesser roads, TN 90 northeast from Caryville, TN, heading toward the Kentucky border.
Leaving Caryville the riding starts, nice paved highways with sweeper curves.  Sunny, blue sky and slightly chilly.  Just a good day to ride.
Going through the chute beneath the railroad can be rather hairy when meeting a large truck but today it was a snap.  Just have to watch for wet spots to make sure they are not frozen.  No wiggle room in there.







The pictures of KY 74 are on a video and shows just how wild this highway is.  Very narrow, lots of dips and curves and mostly without any lane striping or guardrails.  It is a very poor area, this TN-KY coal area as these houses indicate.  A run down mobile home is upscale living in this area.  Very little land suitable for agriculture, no industry other than logging or coal mining and most of the mines have closed down.
One area had a nice size stream running along the road in places often disappearing around some bend into who knows where only to show up again a few hundred feet farther up the road.
This is a nice sweeper curve, just keep the throttle in place, set yourself up for the turn, and lean your bike over.











Coming into Middlesboro, KY the land flattened out a bit and some nice farms were alongside the highway.
Along our route I found this an interesting picture, an outside church with benches for pews, a wooden cross in the background and a podium for the preacher's Bible.  It was a Methodist Church.
Residential area west side of Middlesboro, KY.  An old town and for the area the major town for shopping.
Interesting old buildings dating back into the late 1800s and early 1900s.  The main street, like many small towns, is where the action is and the highway is the main street.
About half way through Middlesboro the railroad tracks crosses the high.  It had a sign attached reading "Magic City".  Don't know what that refers to but it was different.
Going into KY from TN you go through a long tunnel and coming out the route we took you do the same.  Just outside of the tunnel we turned off and went through the western tip of VA then back into TN.
Inside the mountain with it's eerie yellow glow from the lights.  Always clean and well lit.









Leaving the VA area quickly puts us back in TN, more back roads and small farms, old farm land with old buildings.
Then you pop over a rise into a valley and there you find large fields interrupted only by fence rows dotting both sides of the highway.
A few miles later we've back on a multi-lane highway, U.S. 25 with nice scenery and long curves.  Carb cleaning time so crank it up a bit.
As I have mentioned before, we do a lot of back roads and this is no exception for a few miles of carb cleaning we were once again back on the smaller rural highways.  Where do they lead?  Who knows, just follow them to find out.  Hopefully it won't be in a front yard with several barking dogs that look hungry.  Been there, done that.





Friday, January 23, 2015

The Dragon and Fontana, NC

Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015.  This ride will leave Seymour, TN, take the backroads down to Walland and jump on the Foothills Parkway to take us South to Calderwood Lake and U.S. 129, to ride The Dragon.  MickyDs seems to be the general meet-up place these days.  The morning is crispy cold, about 34 when we left out but warming up to the upper 50s during the day.  Friend Paul and I pulled out about 9:30 this morning with enough layers of clothing to ensure we would be warm starting and could shed as it warmed up.

After a few miles on U.S. 411 we hooked a left and started our travels on the backroads, not that U.S. 411 is a super highway for it's not.  It is a narrow two lane highway with ditches on the sides and has a number of curves along its path.  Another turn puts us along the side of The University of Tenn.'s Agriculture testing area.  Quite a large farm of rich delta like soil.
They grow corn, soybeans, hay and other agriculture products testing out various seeds and growth patterns.  Across the road from the farm the road parallels a small river where in summer months you can usually find vehicles parked in pull off spots so the people can fish, picnic or swim.  Nothing fancy, just a creek.
When we get to U.S. 321 at Walland, we make a left onto it and ride for a short distance to the turn off for the Foothills Parkway.  The sun was doing its thing this morning backed up by a big blue sky and high thin clouds.  I noticed a number of contrails which looked like small white stripes against the blue of the sky.  Somebody going somewhere.

The Foothills Pkwy. is two lanes with a 45 m.p.h. speed limit.  This morning there were practically zero vehicles.  Just us two old guys going South and we met one car heading North.
It has it's share of curves but the road surface and curve construction let you pretty much hang out all the length of the parkway at 45 m.p.h.  There are a number of turnouts so people can stop, look at the valleys below, take pictures, rest breaks and the numerous other things vacationers do.  For us, it was the scenic shortcut to get to The Dragon.
At the end of the Foothills and Jct. of U.S. 129 is Calderwood Lake, backed up to serve as a water supply for Calderwood Dam, another TVA hydro-electric generating facility.  This is a very big lake and during the summer has numerous skiers, boating enthusiasts, and fishers.  Some just launch their pontoon boats and loll around for a few days.


There wasn't much wind this morning and it showed with the smooth reflection in the lake waters.  Hardly a ripple today which is unusual as it seems wind is always around in these valleys.  The mountains are like the buildings of a city, air moves when you don't think it would be moving.
As we ride along the lake the smooth flat highway starts to make more curves and then you know you are now on the Tail of the Dragon, or as we call it, The Dragon.  There are 318 curves in 11 miles starting in TN and ending in NC at Deal's Gap, NC.  It is considered one of the top ten motorcycle roads in the world and No. 1 in the U.S. 
On weekends and during the summer it is very busy.  They have just recently limited trucks with trailers to be no more than 30' in length.  NC did this a couple of years ago.  It is two way traffic and long vehicles cannot stay totally in their lane in some of the curves thus causing a few deaths over the years.  It annually claims about 4 lives.  Mainly due to speed and/or riders not use to mountain riding.  Friend Paul is in the pic.
We made a successful ride across the Dragon.  Met one car which is a first for me.  But then, it is winter and it was during the work week.  We turned off  at Deal's Gap and headed toward Fontana Village.  On our way we ran along another river for a while making a detour or two to look at other things along the route.

 There are some very pretty homes in this area, some for full timers, some for rentals and some are just summer homes.  This was a very nice log home with a beautiful view.
A few more miles and a bunch more curves was bringing us closer to Fontana Village, a predominantly summer vacationing spot on Fontana Lake backed up for Fontana Dam, yet another TVA hydro-electric water source.  A number of people live here full time but you have to make sure you are well supplied during the winter due to snow and icing conditions.  And Walmart isn't just around the corner.
This is Brookfield Station, one of our side trips and downstream from Fontana.  There is a water tank at the top of the mountain where they pump water up and then let it flow down to operate the plant.







One of the boat ramps at Fontana Lake.  There were several large houseboats anchored out in the lake.  They were to large to tie up to the dock.
Another view of an inlet or cove on the lake.  You can see the lake is down quite a bit and will get even lower until the spring rains and thaw elevate the water level.  Then they have to generate full potential and even open some floodgates from time to time.
These two little houses were just too cute to pass up taking a picture.  I don't know what they're used for, maybe just for what I was doing, taking a picture.  Little doll houses.
I'm just glad I didn't have to split all of the rails that made up this fence.  It was at least a quarter mile long and ran around the property on all sides.  It would help out with firewood if times got really hard.
If you leave it long enough, Mother Nature will take it back, one vine at a time.  It was once a small house.  Now it is barely visible due to the growth.
Rest stop.  Time for a pit stop and a warm-up with a cup of coffee.  Maybe even a snack.  When we ride we don't usually take long lunch breaks as that reduces the miles you want to travel within a certain time frame.
These small rural stores have about anything you need from fish bait to sandwich bread.  Notice two gas pumps, high test and regular, 100% gasoline, no ethanol added.
A short side trip brought us to this mock-up of a water driven mill.  However, this was for looks only as the slush box that would bring the water starts in the middle of the yard and is nowhere near supplying water.  The only water is the little stream that runs between the highway and the mill.
Winter doesn't have much color other than blue sky and gray bark trees except for the occasional evergreen tree.  Standing behind that rail fence kind of makes them stand out.









Another fifteen miles or so brought us onto the Cherokee Indian Reservation and the town of Cherokee, NC.  A lot of memories built up here over the years, especially when the boys were young.  Headdresses, bow and arrows, leather moccasins.  Just about every trip there for several years.
Just as you enter the Smoky Mountain National Park from the East you will notice behind the Oconaluftee Visitor Center a farm, complete with house, out buildings, barn, garden, etc.  During the summer months several volunteers dress up in the clothing of that time period and do chores including growing vegetables in the garden.  A free tour paid for by your tax money and well worth it.



On the way across the mountain you could see quite a bit of this white stuff along the roadway, on the shady side of the mountain and even some very long icicles clinging to the boulders.  There was very little of it on the West side as it had already melted.  The temperature changed also from the visitor center to the top of the mountain.  In fact, neither Paul nor I removed any of our clothing during the ride.  It just never got that warm.

It was another great riding day, even with the coolness of the morning start.  The scenery was great, the lack of vehicles made it easier to ride without having to watch for crazy drivers and beside that, we saw some new stuff not seen by us before.  House to house mileage today was 214.  Time spent, not applicable.  Just another good day in the saddle.  So for you worker-bees, do it safe, do it right, and go home to your loved ones at the end of your day or night.